A web search for "linux IP camera" is going to generate some hits. A search for "IP Camera", "Axis", "Foscam", "Panasonic", etc on the LMCE forums is also going to give you plenty of reading.
When I added my first few cameras to LMCE I had very mixed results. There is simply a ton of guides and recommendations here and on the wiki which although generally the same offer different methods and is enough to confuse fairly easily. My first true problem camera was a D-Link 930L (that I still need to submit a template for... sorry) that had random bouts of dropping out. Motion settings could have been an issue as there was a fairly well known issue of having to restart Motion after a reload router command. My device data settings conflicting with the camera's own browser accessed settings could have contributed as well. No matter what troubleshooting guide I followed, or no matter how many times I removed the device to re-add it using different methods all resulted in random problems.
I came across
this very good thread which lead to more searching and research. The work around I used has survived despite many many reloads and many times deleting the camera and re-adding it with different settings. The work around I used was to simply move the camera off of the LMCE network.
This breaks the general rule that LMCE resources need to be on the internal network and given IP addresses by the CORE, and I want to address that rule. Nobody wants the frustration of configuring each device, in fact the premise behind smart home systems is that you shouldn't have to. Users should be able to buy a device, power it up and have LMCE detect and configure it, automagicly. To get to that point however a lot of work has to go on to create proper templates, update detection radars, etc. Time and energy spent getting something working is then shared so that the next user to come along has the out-of-the box experience. I broke the general rule as a troubleshooting experiment, not as a setup method.
To move my camera off the LMCE internal network I used the basic networking Venn Diagram rule that says the machine that creates a network of it's own is still a part of the parent network. Rarely is the external (eth0) network many of us have in our homes considered other than methods to avoid it. Although it very well can be a network, capable of file sharing, static addressing and other functions. The core (when a DHCP device controls the external network) is a member of the external network. Devices attached to the internal network (eth1) are NOT members of that external network and thereby can not "see" devices living on the external network.
Example:
{External Router} (192.168.0.1) I
L___
[iPad] (192.168.0.2) L___
[Work Laptop] (192.168.0.3) L___
[Windows PC] (192.168.0.4) L___
{LM
CE
CO
RE}
(192.168.0.5 / 192.168.80.1)
I
L____[Media Director1] (192.168.80.2)
L____[Media Director2] (192.168.80.3)
L____[NAS] (192.168.80.4)
L____[HD HomeRun] (192.168.80.5)
L____[Cisco 7970] (192.168.80.6)
As you can see by my super fancy editing, the core is a member of 2 networks. Devices in solid black or red are a member of one network only. The CORE tells MediaDirector1 to use that IP address. This is a static configuration. Now typically when the term static is brought up its typically because a user decided to play DHCP themselves and mucked up the CORE by adding their own static settings. What I am referring to is when LMCE adds an IP for a device on its own, it gives it a non-changing (static) IP so that it knows where to find it at all times.
Using the above example network I connected an IP camera to {External Router}, which gave it an IP. From the CORE i opened the browser interface for my {External Router} and learned that the camera was given an IP of 192.168.0.6. Because I am going to be telling LMCE that a camera is at that address I wanted to make sure the address doesn't change. I instructed {External Router} to make the camera's IP static.
Now back in the comfortable web-admin page I add a camera normally, when asked for the IP address of this new device I provide the 192.168.0.6 location. LMCE accepts this setting and goes ahead to statically add the IP to its list of DHCP leases.
What the CORE doesn't realize (or maybe it does?) is that in this case it did not have DHCP authority to assign a static IP on that network. Despite its' network the camera operates happily and the CORE has no problem going through the {External Router} to grab a peek at its video every now and then.
The camera through its' web browser interface also can be set to use a static IP. I did this just because I am a clean nut and like the camera to know its' IP allocation without having to ask. With these settings in place I have been able to move, unplug and stick in a drawer, disconnect the wired connection and know that it will always be available at that location ready to be accessed.
I put this to a thread not to provide my methods for off-network static addressing or to suggest that this will fix anyone's issue but to offer another tool to users against a wall on network issues. Even with really crafty code this setup can never be plug and play and does nothing to promote the LMCE smart home ideal. It should be used long enough until issues preventing operation on the internal network can be resolved and the methods needed to get it working under LMCE are shared with other users.
